A blog about the Iraqi cuisine from ancient Mesopotamian times to the present, by Nawal Nasrallah, author of Delights from the Garden of Eden, 2003. A new fully revised edition is released (UK: Equinox Publishing, 2013). TLS (Nov 1, 2013) said about it:
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Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Kubbat Timman كبّة تمّن

aka, Kubbat Halab كبّة حلب

Iraqi Rice-Balls, Stuffed and Fried

Elegant Counterpart of Sicilian Arancini

Crisp and golden bundles of delight:Rice is boiled in a large amount of salted water, flavored with a bit of saffron, and cooked to perfection. Then it is drained and kneaded into dough, stuffed with spicy meat-mix, shaped, and fried to golden crispness. Yummy!

This is an Iraqi specialty, a delicacy usually reserved for festive
treats and elegant presentations. Although the name kubbat Halab might link
it to the Syrian city of Aleppo, to my knowledge, no other Arab country
prepares it as we do. I once made it for friends from Aleppo, and they said
they have never seen anything like it before.

The beginnings of today’s art of making the stuffed foods of kubba,
of which this Iraqi specialty is just one kind, can be traced back to the
Baghdadi medieval kitchens where cooks experimented with this sort of complex
cooking technique, with great success. We know this from some of the recipes
included in al-Baghdadi's cookbook كتاب الطبيخ written in Baghdad in 1226. In his
collection of recipes, the much-loved meatballs, called kubebكُبب(singular kubbaكبّة), were given several playful twists by
stuffing them with other ingredients, thus turning them into little balls of
delightful surprises.

For instance, in a dish called Makhfiyya (the hidden), whole
cooked egg-yolks were enclosed in spicy paste of ground meat, and shaped into
balls. In Rutabiyya (meaning 'cooked with dates'), paste of ground meat was
formed into date-like balls, stuffed with peeled almonds, and simmered in
broth. When served, the dish was garnished with real dates filled with almonds,
to further confuse the diners. In another dish called Bunduqiyya ('like
hazelnuts'), paste of seasoned ground meat was shaped into small balls, as
small as hazelnuts, filled with mashed cooked chickpeas, then simmered in
broth.

Also included in al-Baghdadi’s cookbook was Naranjiyya (i.e.
looking like naranj 'orange'). Meatballs were made as large as oranges, and
then they were coated with egg-yolk and dipped into the stew-liquid several
times until they acquired the color orange; which brings us to the now
ubiquitous Sicilian arancini (singular arancino, from ‘arancia’ Italian for ‘little
orange’), which are large stuffed balls of cooked rice, breaded and deep fried
until they are golden brown, so that they look like oranges.

It is quite likely that the medieval Arab Naranjiyya might
have been the inspiration behind this Sicilian specialty. Actually, I have seen
it repeatedly mentioned that it was invented in the tenth-century during the
time of the Arab rule, and that it was similar to foods based on recipes known
in the Middle East during the Middle Ages (see for instance, Arancine,
by Francesca Lombardo). Indeed, this might well have been the case as cultivation
of rice, saffron and citrus fruits, among many other plants, was initiated by
the Arabs when they ruled the southern parts of Spain and Italy. However, I
have yet to find medieval recipes or more specific references to this kind of
stuffed food.

It is my assumption, though, that arancini and even the Iraqi Kubbat
Halab might well have originally been the creations of the resourceful cooks who
found a practical and delicious way for using cooked-rice leftovers, but evidently
the Iraqi cooks took it notches up. In today's Italian cuisine, arancini is plain
honest easy-to prepare food, stuffed with whatever is on hand; quite popular as
comfort snack food.

Kubbat Halab on the other hand is one of the most refined Iraqi stuffed dishes, which requires a certain level of expertise; shells meticulously shaped as thin as possible and exquisitely filled with meat stuffing, redolent with the aromas of allspice and baharat spices.

Here is how to make kubbat Halab:

Making dough for kubbat Halab might prove to be rather tricky at
the beginning. I remember when I first started experimenting with it, the
finished kubbas were soft, and took
some odd shapes. To make successful kubbat
Halab you need to watch for two things:

1. The best rice choice would be a
variety which tends to be a little on the sticky side such as jasmine rice, but basmati rice will still work. Some people choose to add beaten egg to the
dough as a binder, but this will soften the texture, and the kubba loses its characteristic
crunchiness.

2. Let rice boil gently in
a big amount of salted water, and watch it and test the grains for doneness.
Undercook the grains and they will not bind into dough, overcook them and they
will be a ruined mush.

Heat oil in a big skillet and cook ground meat,
stirring occasionally, and breaking down any lumps with the back of a spoon.
When moisture almost evaporates, add onion and stir until transparent, 10 to 15
minutes, total. Add the rest of the ingredients in the last five minutes of
cooking, and fold gently. Set aside to cool off.

1.
Bring water to a boil in a medium pot. Add the drained rice along with salt, saffron or turmeric, and cinnamon. Give the pot a good stir, and bring it back to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium, and let the rice boil gently in the partially covered
pot, gently stirring twice or thrice. The rice grains should be cooked in about
15 minutes. Start testing after the first 10 minutes of cooking. Take a few
grains and eat them, they should be cooked but still intact, not chewy, and not
mushy. Do not let rice overcook.

2. Strain rice in a metal
colander. Put the
colander with the rice back into the pot and cover it with the lid, and set it
aside until it is cool enough to handle.

3.
Transfer rice to a big bowl, and discard the cinnamon stick if used. Sprinkle
cornstarch on rice and knead with slightly moistened hands until mixture is
combined into dough.

4.
Have a bowl of cold water nearby. Handling with slightly moistened hands, take
a small amount of dough, size of a small lemon, and shape it as follows (like the American football or rugby ball):
Hold the ball of
dough in one hand and hollow it with the thumb of the other hand until you get
an elongated oval shell about ¼ in. thick and 3 in. long, it does not have to
be perfect. Fill and close the opening, and roll it gently between the palms to
make it look like an egg with two pointed ends. Moisten your fingers whenever
dough feels sticky. Put the finished ones on a big tray in one layer.

5.
Fry the filled kubba in 1-inch deep hot oil, turning once, until golden
all around, about 7 minutes per batch. Put the fried pieces in a large colander
lined with white paper towels, and let them cool off a little before serving.
Alternatively, you may spread the paper towels on a rack and put the fried kubbas
in one layer to cool off. This way you prevent the kubba from
getting soggy.Serve with lots of salad and bread,
or make into sandwiches with slices of salad vegetables, and pickles. Pickled
mango (‘amba) with diced tomato is especially good with this dish (see my website for pickle suggestions).(Makes 22-24 pieces)

Kubbat Halab: A diamond in the rough, waiting to be discovered!

When are we going to see such trailers serving the scrumptious Iraqi elegant version, kubbat Halab?

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About Me

I am an independent Iraqi scholar, passionate about cooking and its history and culture, an award-winning researcher and food writer. The first edition of my cookbook Delights from the Garden of Eden: A Cookbook and a History of the Iraqi Cuisine (2003) is winner of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards,. It is now released in a new revised edition, elegantly styled and generously illustrated with color photos (Equinox Publishing, UK). My book Dates: A Global History (Edible Series, Reaktion Books) was released in April 2011. A charming account of the date palm and its fruit, informative and fun to read. My English translation of Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's 10th-century Baghdadi cookbook Kitab al-Tabikh, entitled Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens (Brill, 2007), was awarded "Best Translation in the World" and "Best of the Best of the Past 12 Years" of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2007. It also received Honorable Mention in 2007 Arab American National Museum Book Awards. I co-authored Beginner's Iraqi Arabic, with 2 audio CDs (Hippocrene,2005) I have been giving cooking classes and presentations on the Iraqi cuisine. Visit my website www.iraqicookbook.